Survey: 58 percent want health care law repealed

Besides the legal hoops the new healthcare law has to go through, as two federal judges have deemed it unconstitutional, public sentiment may be its toughest hurdle of all.

According to a new Rasmussen Reports survey of likely voters, 58 percent of respondents are at least somewhat in favor of the healthcare law's repeal, with 44 percent strongly in favor of it being repealed. Further, only 21 percent said they believe healthcare will improve once it is enacted.

The survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted on February 4 and 5, but public sentiment has long been in opposition to the law. Fifty-eight percent is the highest rate favoring repeal since Rasmussen conducted the same poll in September, when 61 percent favored its revocation.

Political observers consider the healthcare law and Americans' opposition to it as one of the factors that ushered in a Republican majority in the House of Representatives, as Democrats are largely in favor of the measure. They say it will provide coverage to millions of people who either don't have it or can't afford health insurance. Republicans largely oppose the measure because they say it will increase the deficit and worsen healthcare quality.